A Black Hawk Army helicopter crashed on a Maryland golf course on Monday, seriously injuring two crewmembers, the military said, and local media reported that a third person aboard had died.
The UH-60 Black Hawk from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, made a “hard landing” shortly before 2 p.m. EDT near Leonardstown, Maryland, about 35 miles southeast of Washington, base spokeswoman Jennifer Brande said by telephone.
Two of the three crew aboard the Black Hawk were medically evacuated, she said.
Brande had no immediate information about a death in the crash.
The helicopter went down at the Breton Bay Golf and Country Club, according to a club secretary. TheBayNet.com, a local news outlet, reported that emergency workers found one person dead and that two survivors were airlifted to a Baltimore hospital.
Witness Elizabeth Willing told TheBayNet.com that she and a friend were kayaking in Breton Bay when they saw three helicopters, with one lagging behind.
“It started spinning. At first we thought it was doing tricks,” she said.
Her friend, Kat McCurdy, said: “It disappeared behind the tree line, and then we heard a big bang.”
A photo posted by the news website showed emergency personnel and vehicles gathered around twisted wreckage, with debris scattered on the grass.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Lisa Shumaker and Bernard Orr)
